P. Silverthorne Bio

Paul Silverthorne - Silverthorne Consulting

Paul Silverthorne has spent his professional career, which started over 35 years ago, evolving new techniques and technology. His creative flare began when he developed a technique in 1967-68 (as an undergraduate) for “laying up” fiberglass for motor vehicle bodies, a technique that reduced fracture and allowed for simple repairs through patching rather than replacement. He obtained an A grade in his undergraduate thesis on this subject. Paul also demonstrated his leadership tendencies, when he was elected President of his Fraternity while he was attending the University of Toronto.

Paul began his working career as a consulting engineer, working for two major firms, Giffels Associates and H. H. Angus in Toronto from 1968 to 1973. From 1970 to 1973, he continued his education taking part of an MBA program at the University of Toronto. At the beginning of 1974, Paul joined Bob Tamblyn and Jim Rose as one of the three founding associates in Engineering Interface, a start-up concept engineering company focused on the life cycle value of investment in energy conserving approaches to heating, ventilating and air conditioning for buildings. During his 4 years at Engineering Interface, Paul developed several fundamental advances in HVAC techniques, including the development of single pipe and single duct modular HVAC systems and the development of a thermal storage process (patented by Paul and others at Engineering Interface).

Paul realized that his contribution to the success of the start-up of Engineering Interface was more significant than simply providing good engineering and technical leadership. He was instrumental in streamlining the accounting system for tracking labour, work in process, invoicing and collections, developing and writing the software himself. As he became aware of this capability and spotting an opportunity in the Building Management and Control Market, Paul decided to relinquish his partnership in Engineering Interface to start his own control company, Multitrol Corporation. Multitrol began in 1978, growing from a revenue base of $100K in 1979 to a revenue base of $4.0 million in 1982. In 1983, Multitrol entered into a relationship with the Controls Division of Butler Manufacturing to provide a large wide area control system for Bell South, based on Multitrol technology. This relationship ended with Butler purchasing the majority of the assets of Multitrol, and Paul taking on the role of Senior Vice President of Butler Manufacturing in Kansas, Missouri. Paul retired from Butler in 1985. Paul decided to start Dimax Controls in 1986. It took two years and approximately $4 million dollars of investment for Dimax to develop a new, leading edge product line, which it introduced to the market in 1988-89. The company was able to leverage itself forward over the next 4 years into a $2.5 million per annum operation. In 1995, Paul bought out the shareholders in Dimax, and the company grew its annual revenues from under $2.0 million to just under $10 million in 2001.

In March of 2001, Paul and his team at Dimax came up with the concept of Internet Messaging applied to the Building Management Market Place. By December 2001, they had developed a prototype system to demonstrate the principal and to help define a larger-scale platform development. Realizing that the Internet Messaging concept had applicability well beyond the Building Management market segment and that the business potential was far greater than that of Dimax Controls, the Internet Messaging business was set up as an independent company in December 2001, trading as INCERNO.

Paul has been successful at launching several intriguing and visionary businesses during his career. As well to his credit, Paul is well published (having written 14 technical papers for trade journals and keynote addresses), he has acted as a specialist consultant both in engineering and in business, he has written and developed 6 significant software packages for accounting, life cycle costing and building performance simulation, and he holds numerous trade marks and patents. He has been the keynote speaker at international conferences and at one point taught part time at the School of Architecture at the University of Toronto. If Paul has any spare time left, he can be found on the ski hills, windsurfing at the lake or playing squash or tennis!

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